The Governor’s budget is asking Yakima Valley Community College to reduce our budget by $1.29 million. What ideas do you have for ways that we can reduce our budget?
I agree with the 4 day a week schedule. It would save some money, but most of the teachers that teach a daily class would have problems with the idea. There are things that we need to know from certain classes and losing the 1 day a week would ruin the schedule the teachers have for their classes. Personally I think it wouldn't work for some classes like the upper level math classes. We go through about 1 section every 50 min class period and losing 1 day a week would cut back on how much we learn per quarter by about 2 chapters of material. Same with science classes too.
I THINGK THAT IS SO WRONG THAT THEY ARE GOING TO ALL OF THOSE FUNDS IF THEY CUT THEM STUDENTS LIKE ME THAT NEED FINANCIAL AID WILL PROBABLY END UP NOT EVEN ATTENDING COLLEGE NEXT YEAR MY FAMILY IS NOT RICH I DONT HAVE A GOOD JOB THATS WHY IM ATTENDING COLLEGE TO BECOME A PROFECIONAL BUT WE ARE PAYING TAXES AND ITS NOT FAIR THAT EVEN IF WE ARE WE ARE GOING TO GET SO MUCH CUTS ....I THINK WE ALL NEED TO STAND UP AND LET OUR CUMMUNITY KNOW ABOUT THIS AND WE NEED THE MONEY FOR INSTRUCTORS TO STAY AND TEACH NOT HAVE A CLASSROOM WITH TWO CLASSES WORTH OF STUDENTS WE NEED THE FUNDS FOR EDUCATION .........THE COLLEGE ITSELF SHOULD FOCUSE ON KEEPIG THE INSTRUCTORS AND THE CLASSES NOT CUT TEACHERS AND CLASSES...WE NEED OUR "COMMUNITY COLLEGE" THATS WHY WE ATTEND BECAUESE WE CANNOT AFFORD TO GO TO A UNIVERSITY PRICES ALWASY GO UP IN TUITIONS WHERE IS THAT MONEY SPEND? NOT ON TEACHERS OR FACULTY THERES MORE BEING CUT//WHER DOES ALL THE AID WE GET FROM OUR STATE?????AND MOSTLY WHY ARE THEY CUTTING US SO MUCH MONEY WE NEED THE INSTRUCTORS WE NEED AND EDUCATION ..NOT JUST A FANCY SCHOOL EMTY!!BECAUSE MANY OF US ARE THERE BUT ALOT OF US ARE THERE BECAUSE OF THE FINANCIAL AID .................NO TO THE BUDGET CUTS!!!!!!!!!!
Eliminate athletic scholarships, the college is not really known for its great sports teams, why do we have recrutement for players when we should be consentrating on keeping our instructors? The last college I went to had a $40 fee added to tuition for parking, if you did not drive to the college they gave you a bus pass for the quarter instead of a parking permit. $40 times 4,484 students equals $179,360, that could go a long way.
I think that charging for parking would be a good start. I attended Central Washington University and had to pay around $200 for a parking pass. The passes wouldn't have to be that much but charging some amount of money for them would help.
I think that a 7% increase wouldn't be enough they should raise it to 10% lets face it yvcc is way cheaper than any college in eastern washington. I totally see my money well spent in comparison to heritage where its almost 3 times as expensive. People need to understand that we can't always have a free ride now its time for us to fork out a little extra to help the college. Maybe YVCC can maybe apply for a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and hopefully receive a grant to help offset the budget.
One question that I feel that is necessary is, "Why hasn't this all been taken into consideration before the economic crisis that we now face." Streamlining homework with webassign is a great idea that will save instructors time in correcting papers, which in turn will give them more 1 on 1 time with the students, but one must also remember that Yakima County in itself has the highest poverty rate in the state. Many students do not have the resources available to them at home to reach thier full potential (i.e. computers, internet etc.). While cutting class days from 4 to 5 sounds like a good idea, one must remember that in closing the entire institution for one day provides one less day for these students from the lower socioeconomic bracket to learn. I will argue though that the savings of this extra day of closure could be "wisely spent" on increasing library and computer lab times available so that all students can have the access to also "wisely spend" that extra day at school educating themselves. I believe in going "green" to not only cut cost but also to lessen our carbon footprint left behind, I believe that if the student must suffer cut backs then also the faculty must absorb some of these also, I also believe that increasing class sizes is not only an option but a must. Students in India sometimes have classes composed of 100-200 members, not saying that we must also do this, but larger classes will not only increases the productivity of teachers but also affords them more individual resources to use in the class room. This increase in class size, I feel, will not only make students more motivated to work harder to be "the standout student" or at the top of the class, but will also provide them with more available students in the same classes so that they will actually form peer study groups. Let's face it, when you have a class of 20-22 students it is much more difficult to get 7 or 8 (which is approximately a third of the class) of them together for study groups outside of class. On the other hand, if you have 35-40, or even 50, students in a class, you will almost certainly have many more study groups. These study groups will also catch on more since average "Joe" who is getting an A or B in the class will inform "Suzy", who may be struggling with a C or D, of how he did it with the help of his peers in the study group. We also need to address the issue of "available" resources to students. If there were ever one plane in which equal opportunity should truly be available, it should lie in education. The faculty's job is to provide that equal plane. Have they provided that by cutting library resources, and even furthermore, by not increasing but decreasing the library budget over the last 20 years. Yes, through inflation, economic prosperity and depression, and even though the Yakima campus has opened a new million dollar library facility (estimated), they are forced to operate on not the same dollar amount as 2 decades ago, but less. The facts need to be clearly presented, and maybe it is time for an overhaul of the approach to educating tomorrows leaders. We face one clear and present danger in today's world, if we are stubborn to adapt, if we won't help advance and educate the lower class, and if we don't look inward for theses solutions, then we will face getting left behind by the rest of the world. Do we really want that for the next generation, or is that their problem to face?
Is the school allowed to charge different tuition prices for different fields of study? Or since it's public is it limited in that aspect? It seems that there are certain fields that lead to more profitable jobs and/or have quite a few people trying to get into them. Can programs such as nursing be raised a little bit above regular tuition in order to increase revenue and offset the budget cut (at least a little)?
I feel that we need to close the computer labs on the days that we do not have school. Grandview needs to have more classes to aide in students getting there AA.. and not just ITV classes. Grants that are going towards online classes need to go towards ITV so that they are improved and can better serve the purpose of being in the classroom. Close the Yakima Campus on Fridays, Have more events on the campus to benefit the campus and not outside groups. Charge for parking passes and have them on a hanger style so that you can move them from car to car.
Go 4 days instead of 5, cut off friday. Use some of the money that the bookstore generates they charge for example $180.00 For a book new and when we return it they give us $20.00 back wheres that 160? This is a question so many people ask and its even on here already. Its a rip off. Also stop spending money on the appearance of YVCC, do we need a bench every 10 feet? No ones ever sitting on them, do the buildings all need to be so fancy on the outside? We go to learn than leave. All I care about is my education.
I have to agree with some others opinions that I think it is a buncha BS that we have to take another budget cut. Why doesn't our state government cut other programs, especially ones that are not being made much use of, and use money intented for those programs to help out with things. I mean, how do they expect people to get a quality education if they are slowly and surely taking away the funding needed to make that happen. Whew ok, now that I got that out of my system. I agree with the anonymous poster above about not replacing the 5 teachers who are retiring and using the money that would have gone to pay their salaries to go towards funding of the school's activites. I also agree with another poster here that IF having classes taught online saves the college money, that the college should make more of these classes available.
Well, what light bulbs are being used in the School? Change light bulbs to high efficiency bulbs, they are just as bright, but they utilize less energy, ultimately the school saves money with electric bills (and they are more green!). Also, if it is a Sunny day, does the light really need to be on in classrooms? Have Professors ask at the beginning of class if lights can be turned off. We have an art program at YVCC, why don't we do an art show for the Yakima Valley, proceeds benefitting YVCC. Also, maybe we can start charging 4-5 dollars for parking permits. It is not something ideally I would want, but it is rather inexpensive for individuals, and can bring in some money. Has there been any raises granted to employees of the school recently? Besides a cost of living increase, do what the city council is attempting to do with county employees, suspend raises, it is rather drastic, but at least it would allow others to maintain their jobs. Raise prices in the dining hall, not by much but by 1 dollar or so. Have more classes and forms online based. What about a haunted house production put on by YVCC? Or a live nativity scene? Or an easter egg hunt? Or some such production where community members can pay a small fee and enjoy the production with their families. Why not also offer up the use of some classrooms for business and community meetings? Create a narketing team (maybe from a marketing class....) and they can become meeting coordinators. (apply more class skills to the real world, instead of just teaching about it... offer the experience) In High school I was in the FBLA, and I was part of the team that operated our student store and lunch, just like I worked in an actual store!
Maybe take some of the money the bookstore makes off the students and put it towards more important things. I mean when you sell a book for $180 and we return and get $30, where does the $150 go??? plus they like to pull this its happened to me and I've seen it happen to others. when you purchase a used book and they charge you full price, when you take it back for them to correct it and give you the used price, they just remove the used sticker off the book and say oh no this is new...Hello rip off! also maybe stop upgrading the outside of the school with trees and new seating areas and what not. cut back on paper applications and make it all online...
Well, the only thing i would like to mention for Grandview is that if we are supposed to be a campus that allows students to graduate with an AA degree, then we should have the appropriate classes to do so. And the classes should not just be the easy ones, but also math and sciences. Also, if we are to be having ITV classes, then why do we have such horrible technology when yakima has pretty good technology? If you want us to be able to learn as well as the students on yakima classes, you guys need to make sure to see both campuses and what the budget cuts are doing to each.
I think that this cut will make it impossible for some of us students to attend classes. if the price keeps going up many are going to drop out. i already drive 30 min to get to school and adding the total amount i pay for classes and books makes it even more difficult. having teachers retire because they need to is also hurtful. i mean having less teachers will not only make it harder on the other staff members, but it will also make it harder for the students. last i think that if we students work together with the staff, i think we can find ways to solve some money issues.
I heard that 5 teachers are retiring. Don't replace them and use current staff. Seems that would save about $500,000.
First of all I would like to say, that this is wrong for the college to be taking another budget cut. I am aware that saying this will get me no where. I am not sure if having more online classes saves money or not, but I feel that some classes that we have everyday could stand to be online classes.
I second the 4 a day week class schedule. Theres no reason yvcc in yakima cant have a mon-thurs class schedule. The grandview campus has class mon-thurs and they dont seem to have any problems with it. Plus theres other campuses that have already switched to 4 days a week. Switching over to this kind of schedule would definately save the school money. Plus all the staff and students that are driving would save money in fuel by not having to drive that 5th day.
Perhaps moving to a 4 day school week schedule (with either Mondays or Fridays off) for professors and staff. Of course this would mean the students have that day off, too! YAY! This would save on overhead for one full day. I'm certain you would be able to see if this suggestion is cost-effective. Just a suggestion!! Thank you, Marisha Cosby
forcing direct deposit for financial aid checks would save money. It can't be cheap to print and mail all those checks and people get their money faster. My employer recently made the switch to save money.
I think in some cases, staff could be cut. I often see students that are also employees sitting in the offices doing their homework while they are on the clock. I also think before any academic programs are cut, like the mathlab and writing center, non academics such as sports and student clubs should lose funding. Charging for a parking pass, and making the pay lots campus lots could also bring in revenue as well as help to solve the parking issues. The students living in Yakima could easily take the bus so they do not have to pay. I also think that something needs to be done about students dropping classes. Last quarter, my first quarter at YVCC I did not get to "choose" my classes. I had to take the only classes available because everything was full. Just guessing, 10-25% of the people in my classes dropped before the last day to drop. All those people took spots in from people who wanted those classes and could not get them. I think there needs to be some sort of penalty. Maybe after so many dropped classes without a valid reason, people could get bumped back in the registration date cues. All those people who take those spots and dont use them make the college have to offer more indivual classes. To help students deal with increasing costs, the college could do their best to keep the cost of textbooks down. In a lot of cases, it is important to have the most up to date books available, but some things, like the lower level math classes, nothing changes and I do not see any reason for a book that costs over 100 dollars when older versions are much cheaper and just as useful. Some classes that are primarily lecture classes could signifigantly increase in size with out harming the educational value provided the college makes good tutoring opportunities available. A few tutors are cheaper than another instructor. I do think that the college should first cut funds things that are not directly related to education (sports, clubs, etc) as well as things like the date planner everyone is given at oreintation. After that, cuts should be made in areas that will effect the least amount of students, for instances, reducing the hours of the computer lab and library during the least used times. Perhaps some of the services could be combined, such as the information desk combined with security.
I feel that in addition to reducing the budget, there are alternative forms of revenue that have been overlooked. For instance, one could suggestively sell the premium parking places at time of registration. There are also a number of redundancies in some of the student to institution processes that could be eliminated. For instance, currently if I were to plan an education plan, my process would be to get the appropriate degree form from the website, print it out, fill it out, fax it back. At this point the fax is received, the staff process it ( I am unfamiliar with the process at this point ). One definite way to eliminate the cost of fax paper and toner/ink would be to make the form a PDF that a student would type the values into and press a button to email. This would provide a way to allow staff to get the data into a system without data entry, reduce or eliminate handwriting based errors, and save paper and ink. I find it hard to believe that this is the only form that is processed in this manner. Also, currently the college captures email addresses at time of registration, however the college does NOT use the student's emails during the course of their studies. For instance, if a student did not check their college assigned email, they would not have seen the email that led me to this form. If you are collecting the emails, you should use the emails. I understand that there may be a security issue, however the overhead in manpower, and even server requirements by eliminating general student emails would save some money, and allow students a non-invasive method for college to student communication. Direct deposit of financial aid checks. Save printing costs, postage and man power by offering a direct deposit option on the financial aid form. This would also save tremendous hassle for student in getting their checks, and should be an automated process saving man hours and human errors (rare as they may be) in getting the check from college, to post office, to student. If the college bookstore is an income source, get the prices competitive with the internet. Many students order their books online, or use websites such as craigslist to get books exchanged or purchased at a fraction of the cost. This quarter, I enrolled in 4 classes for 20 credits. My bookstore price would have been over $500 for my books, however I spent $200 to get all my books using alternative sources. Revenue is lost by not being competitive, and the price of the books at the bookstore are way above price compared with the prices available on the internet or a little networking. A number of students have gotten wise to this fact as well, and sell their books back to the bookstore that they purchased online...some actually make profit. This should not be happening. Consider adding more world wide web classes as alternatives to classrooms. I took an accounting 201 class in Fall quarter 2009. The teacher literally taught verbatim from the book, and if not for the need to turn in homework and take the 4 tests I took in class, I would have not had to go to class at all. I imagine a number of other classes similar. While these suggestions may or may not be viable, they will not be enough to solve a $1.29 million dollar required budget cut. I am opposed towards increasing class sizes past where they are at now, or further staff cuts. I feel that enrollment must have increased due to non-traditional students (such as myself) going back for retraining after being displaced in the workforce. An additional 7% tuition increase while decreasing quality of services provided would truly affect the economy in the long run in my opinion. I feel the vast majority of students are there to get an education to return to the workforce, which in turn should help the economy of the community. I feel we should get what we pay for, and if there are alternatives towards class cutting, staff cutting, service cutting, and tuition increases we should consider each and every way to save money, make more money, and use what we have available to us to increase revenues to the college. After all, we have a resource at the college of dozens of highly educated thinkers and professionals, if students are expected to problem solve every day they attend classes, lets put the instructors to work as well. I am sure our math department can come up with cost saving ideas, and if the technology department is not on the block to improve efficiency through the use of technology then that is a shame. I hope this helped. Sincerely, Samuel Small